


The Beauty in Ugliness

by nebulaesailor



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Child Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Escape, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Transphobia, lusamine wins mother of the year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 08:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14745768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulaesailor/pseuds/nebulaesailor
Summary: Gladion will never be the perfect daughter his mother wanted him to be.





	The Beauty in Ugliness

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my docs for a very very long time. I can't exactly remember when the idea came to me that Gladion was Lillie's identical twin but I really liked the idea. Lusamine from what I can assume was never the best mother but after the whole Ultra Beast inccident she just went down the drain.

Gladion had been born an identical twin. Nowadays, people assumed that he and Lillie were fraternal since that's the only way twins could be a “boy and a “girl”. Gladion didn’t blame them. How could anyone know he had been born “female” and that the name his mother gave him was Camillia not Gladion? He never bothered to tell anyone about his origins besides Lillie, Andromeda, Hau, or Guzma. Two of those people knew by complete accident. It also made his gender feel more legitimate when people assumed he was cisgender, nobody to misgender him or give him looks of confusion or pity. He would rather die than go through another lifetime of transphobia and abuse. 

Even at a young age, Gladion never felt like he belonged in the narrow box that others had stuffed him into. His mother, even before her psychosis, had been touchy about the way her children presented to others especially how Gladion presented himself. She would always force him and his sister into cute matching outfits whenever there was some business event or they had guests over in an attempt to impress them with her “perfect matching children”. He had an intense hatred for lacy frilly clothing that itched and made it hard for him to move. He couldn’t play outside or even with the laboratory pokemon because he might get his clothing dirty or torn.

His mother would coo about how perfect and pretty her two “little girls” were, despite the fact that Gladion neither wanted to be pretty nor a girl. He always found his mother’s fixation on beauty ridiculous. Appearance had never really been a priority for him, as long as he didn’t smell bad and his clothing was comfortable and easy to move in, he could care less. But his mother would disagree; every time he fought with her on what to wear, she always pushed back with getting him even more feminine clothes.

It was not until his father disappeared that his mother got worse. She became controlling to the point of suffocating; they could no longer even wear colors instead everything became a pristine white that they could not dare sully. They couldn’t go outside any longer unless they got her permission. He could no longer play with his pokemon friends or even feel the sun on his pale skin. He became defiant; he purposely stained all his white pretty clothing so he had to wear his plain comfortable clothes instead. He refused to let her brush his hair and instead chose to wear it wild and loose, still at his mid back because his mother never let him cut it short. Then as his ultimate act of rebellion, he rejected the name she gave him.

“Mother, I no longer want to be called Camillia. My name is Gladion.” He told his mother as she sat in her office, working on a lab report.

She looked at him from her computer with disdain, angry that her child dare defy her. She turned around to face him and putting her hands in her lap, gesturing for him to come closer. He held his ground, refusing to close the distance between them. She looked at him in disgust and rose from her chair in fury. 

“Now, why would you ever want to change the name **I** gave you, _Camillia._ Is it not good enough for you? Do you think it’s too _pretty_ for this whole ugly phase you're going through? You are just rejecting it to hurt me, _Camillia._ ” Lusamine hissed at him, placing emphasis on his given name.

“It’s because I am not girl, Mother! I’ve never been a girl yet you keep treating me like I am and I’m so tired of it!” He shouted, fists clenched at his sides, shaking in anger.

“You are a girl, Camillia, even if you don’t want be! You are just doing this to hurt me! You are a terrible daughter to hurt me like this!” She screamed back, grabbing him by the hair as he flailed and screeched in pain as his mother tugged at his roots.

“I AM NOT YOUR DAUGHTER!!!” His voice reached a deafening pitch, which sent Lusamine throwing him against a wall where he hit it with a sickening thud as he knelt on his hands, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Hot angry tears ran down his cheeks as he looked up at her with as much hatred and malice he could muster through the cracks in his platinum hair. He spat some blood on the ground, let out harsh shuddering breaths as his mother stood over him, her eyes looking down at him with only disgust.

“You’ll get what you want, Camillia. You are no longer my daughter because how can I produce something this ugly? Now get out of my sight, you’re getting blood on the carpet.” She turned her back to him and went back to her work, his existence forgotten. 

On shaky legs, Gladion got to his feet, his long bangs veiling his face as he stumbled out of the room. He felt numb. He did not remember walking through the cold white hallways, opening the front door and collapsing on the perfectly trimmed lawn in front of their house. His dull swollen eyes flickered up to the massive night sky where the entire Milky Way spread out in all directions from over the Pacific Ocean, it’s brilliance not blocked out from the city lights hundreds of miles away. He thought of the infinite amounts of stars and planets that the universe contained, of the billions of other alternate earths that existed in other universes beyond his grasp. 

Perhaps on those alternate earths, there are alternate hims where he is happy and well. Universes where his father never left and his mother never went crazy in his absence, worlds where his gender is recognized and he had the freedom to make his own choices instead of being treated as a perfect doll in his mother’s collection of beautiful things. That would be the only thing he would ever consider beautiful.   

He would of stayed there until his body decomposed and was thrown overboard off the artificial island where it would be consumed by pokemon who couldn’t give less than a shit whether he was beautiful or not. But despite his bruised bodies’ protests, he dragged himself from up off the grass and towards the building he was expressly forbidden from entering. Aether employees stared at him as he stumbled through the halls, not bothering to stop him as he headed for the lift. His emerald eyes flickered around the pokemon enclosure as shy abused creatures hid from those who in the past had hurt them. 

He wandered aimlessly until he found the lift that would take him away from this place and to the ferry level where he would leave this prison and into the greater world. He looked at the level keys before a strange one caught his eye, a level he didn’t know was there but now enticingly appeared before him like a glowing gift of chance. The more rational part of him screamed for him to leave and put this entire place behind him but the curious scientific mind he had inherited from both of his brilliant parents found it was drawn to the level as if fate was pulling him there.

Then the button was pressed and he was thrusted down levels and levels of the research station until he hit what he assumed was the basement. His bare feet padded near silently on the cold linoleum as not to alert whatever scientists or employees were on duty who would drag him back to his mother to be further trapped in a miserable play of false beauty and suffocating control. The pristine white walls lead to two electrical doors which remained locked and impenetrable unless you had the passkey which he obviously didn’t have. He lingered at the door as almost waiting for it to suddenly open and grant him access to whatever bizarre experiment his mother’s crazed mind could think of. 

Gladion pressed his ear to the door to hear what was the faint sound of chaos and struggle, quickly he darted into a closed off acove in the walls as a group of panicked and terrified scientists ran out with his mother’s lead bioengineer, Faba, following them far behind who had massive chunk taken out of his shoulder which left a trail of blood in its wake. When they all deserted the area, he noticed in their panic that they left the door open.    

Something dangerous was obviously in there but his self-preservation and ability to give a shit about not dying was greatly reduced to the point of nonexistence. He walked through the door and the empty corridor until he came to a lab room with the door slightly ajar and a soft hollow whimpering coming from inside. Gingerly, he opened the door to find a massive patchworked creature cowering behind the examination table, it’s pale eyes staring at him from inside a metal mask. He knew he should be frightened but the thing sported the same blooded bruised body as his obviously in a form it shouldn’t be in. Though indirectly, this creature was another thing created by his mother that when it didn’t meet her impossible expectations was beaten and cast aside like it didn’t matter.  The look in its eyes was the same as his own.

Gladion knelt on the ground a few feet from the creature which let out a warning growl as it pressed itself against the wall. He held his hand out to show he wasn’t a threat, hoping it would at least sniff his hand.

“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you. Those people hurt me too.” He said quietly, the creature lifted its head and cautiously bumped it’s metal encased head against his hand.

“I’m leaving this place if you want to come with me. Out there, they can’t hurt you.” He got to his feet to leave only to have it follow him reluctantly as he left the lab. 

It slowly started to close the gap between them until it was at his side, supporting him from collapsing. It dawned on him that he had finally made his only friend outside of his family and that friend was an abomination in the eyes of Arceus and nature itself. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers. They limped to the lift as Gladion fumbled to press the key to the ferry dock that would finally take him away from this wretched floating hell and into the greater world his mother swear would taint him. 

Once he reached the dock, he let out a sigh of relief as there was few employees to halt his and his friends escape. He petted the soft downy feathers on the creature’s neck to neck to calm himself as in a split second he scrambled for the ferry headed to Ula’Ula, Aether employees shouting and calling his name as he leapt onto the boat with his friend. He got into the cabin, screaming for the captain to leave as the creature menacingly glowered at the man from behind Gladion. Instantly they speed away from Aether Paradise until it got smaller and smaller until it was nothing but a white speck on the horizon.   

**Author's Note:**

> I might post another chapter about the imediate aftermath but that is a huge maybe.


End file.
